{"id":15681,"date":"2018-11-22T14:03:23","date_gmt":"2018-11-22T19:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sothebysrealty.ca\/insightblog\/?p=15681"},"modified":"2018-11-22T14:03:23","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T19:03:23","slug":"grand-dame-of-hotels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sothebysrealty.ca\/insightblog\/fr\/2018\/11\/22\/grand-dame-of-hotels\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexandra Champalimaud’s Luxurious Hotel Designs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

For Alexandra Champalimaud, a hotel is far more than just a place for travellers to rest their heads. To this designer, who has spent the last three decades creating some of the most luxurious hotel interiors in the world, these spaces are reflections of the history, <\/span><\/p>\n

culture and art that surround them as much as the people who inhabit them. Yes, a hotel\u2019s primary purpose is to provide food, lodging and comfort for weary travellers, but they have an altogether grander purpose in this designer\u2019s mind \u2014 to provide a sense of place.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Understated elegance is key at the guest rooms of Waldorf Astoria Chengdu<\/a><\/div>\n
\n

\u201cI refuse to do a hotel that wouldn\u2019t have a sense of place,\u201d Champalimaud says over the phone from her home in Litchfield, Connecticut. \u201cIt\u2019s not what we do \u2014 because nobody in the entire universe wants to go somewhere and feel like they could be anywhere. You want to know where you are.\u201d This is the underlying philosophy of Champalimaud\u2019s eponymous design studio that she founded in Montreal in the 1970s and now runs from its headquarters in a Gothic skyscraper in Lower Manhattan. From Raffles Singapore to The Beverly Hills Hotel to the newly unveiled and renovated Fairmont Royal York in Toronto, Champalimaud doesn\u2019t just design beautiful hotels, she creates destinations.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Her keen eye for detail is in part a product of her upbringing. Born in Portugal and educated in England and Switzerland, Champalimaud was exposed from an early age to a wide breadth of cultural influences. \u201cI\u2019m from a family and a place where I was surrounded by beauty,\u201d she says of her idyllic childhood in Lisbon and Cascais, a seaside town known for its beaches and 16th-century citadel. \u201cWhere I\u2019m from is a place where aesthetics run very high. These beautiful buildings and wonderful silver and incredible tiles, the charm of the country \u2014 you\u2019re surrounded with beauty. You just suck it in by osmosis.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"a dazzling chandelier showcases the skylight at the Gainsborough Hotel in London<\/a><\/div>\n

After emigrating to Canada following the Carnation Revolution in Portugal, Champalimaud did not aim to create a niche practice in hotels, but after winning bids to design a Swiss\u00f4tel in Boston and refurbish the famous Algonquin hotel in New York, she quickly developed a reputation as a competent specialist with an unusual knack for blending classical and modern.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cLike most things in life, you plan one direct route, and everything else happens and you
\ngo the other way,\u201d she says. \u201cJumping into hotels was a wonderful opportunity. It\u2019s very multifaceted because you do everything from public spaces to restaurants to social engineering. It\u2019s a fascinating medium for one\u2019s creativity, like sitting down with a basket of delicious things all around you. There are so many great opportunities when designing hotels.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Her reputation has grown exponentially in the decades since, and it has resulted in a roster of projects that reads like a bucket list of the world\u2019s great hotels \u2014 The Waldorf Astoria, Hotel Bel-Air, The Dorchester, the St. Regis, The Gainsborough Bath Spa, The Plaza, The Stafford. They span the world, from the Four Seasons in Jakarta to The Little Nell, a boutique ski resort in Aspen. Despite their diverse settings, these hotels are all linked by Champalimaud\u2019s unique approach to design that\u2019s equal parts classical refinement and modern comfort, accented with bold patterns and rich colours inspired by the local environment. It\u2019s an aesthetic that has come to define the modern hotel experience.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Waldorf Astoria Chengdu boasts a 25m pool on the 48th floor<\/a><\/div>\n

Few buildings in Canada, and fewer still in Toronto, can conjure the same sense of history as Royal York. When it came time to embark on a major renovation, Champalimaud \u2014 who has also lent her design skills to other Canadian icons such as Ch\u00e2teau Frontenac in Quebec City and The Queen Elizabeth in Montreal \u2014 naturally got the call. Built in 1929 by the Canadian Pacific Railway, the Royal York wasn\u2019t just the tallest building in Toronto then, it was the biggest in the entire British Empire. It was a beacon of luxury, boasting more than 1,000 guest rooms, 10 ornately decorated elevators, a library, a concert hall and an enclosed roof garden. In its heyday, it hosted heads of state and society weddings, housed rock stars and screen idols, and, most famously, welcomed the Queen of England herself. With its stately stone fa\u00e7ade and weathered copper eaves, the Royal York remains, almost a century later, an iconic grand dame in a rapidly evolving city.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Alexandra Champalimaud, hotel designer extraordinaire<\/a><\/div>\n

For this landmark project, Champalimaud, along with lead designer Alan Mainer, was tasked with reimagining the hotel\u2019s Fairmont Gold suites and transforming the 18th floor into a lounge and reception area for Fairmont Gold guests. As with all of her work on such historic properties, the result is an attempt to draw a line from the property\u2019s gilded past to its vibrant present, all the while preserving the exceptional standards of luxury for which it has always been known. \u201cThe revitalization of these iconic hotels is something that Alexandra is sought after because of her sensitivity about finding their soul, their original story,\u201d says Mainer. \u201cHow do we drag that into the 21st century and make it really relevant, uplifting and memorable?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"A rendering of Champalimaud's design shows the Royal York Gold Lounge at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto<\/a><\/div>\n

The result is an interior rich in bespoke furnishings and architectural details, including a mural in the 18th-floor reception area depicting Toronto\u2019s skyline, hand-painted on canvas. \u201cHonestly, she\u2019s peerless,\u201d says Judith Tatar, whose firm worked with Champalimaud to furnish the hotel\u2019s artwork. \u201cWe understood the level of luxury demanded by Champalimaud and her team, and nothing less than a hand- executed mural would do.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"The grand 3 bedroom Royal Suite at the Plaza - a Fairmont-managed hotel in New York overlooks 5th Ave<\/a><\/div>\n

With most of the work on the Fairmont Royal York completed (the final Gold suites will be open to the public in June 2019), Champalimaud and her studio now turn their attention to a diverse slate of projects already underway. There\u2019s a luxury hotel at Notre Dame\u2019s football stadium in Indiana and a 53-storey Perkins+Will skyscraper in Atlanta, plus a line of upholstery fabrics by Holland & Sherry, carpets by The Rug Company and furnishings bearing the Champalimaud name. Fortunately for Alexandra Champalimaud, there will always be historic hotels in need of her unique sensibility, as well as travellers in search of luxury, comfort and, above all, a sense of place.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n

By Jeremey Freed –  *This article originally appeared in INSIGHT: The Art of Living | Winter 2018<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Photography by: Paul Barbera; Waldorf Astoria;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Alexandra Champalimaud, a hotel is far more than just a place for travellers to rest their heads. 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